Korowai language

Korowai
Kolufaup
Region	Becking River, South Papua, Indonesia
Ethnicity	Korowai
Native speakers	3,500 (2007)[1]
Language family	Trans-New Guinea Asmat-Awyu-Ok Greater Awyu Becking-Dawi Korowai
Language codes
ISO 639-3	khe
Glottolog	koro1312
ELP	Korowai

Korowai (Kolufaup) is a Trans-New-Guinean language spoken in South Papua, Indonesia. It is spoken by the Korowai people who live along the Becking River.

Phonology

Consonants^[2]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b	t d	ɟ ⟨j⟩	k g
Prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩		ᵑg ⟨ngg⟩
Fricative	ɸ ⟨f⟩	s		x ⟨kh⟩
Nasal	m	n
Approximant	w	l	j ⟨y⟩, ɥ ⟨hü⟩

• /b/ and /d/ are in free variation with [ɓ] and [ɗ] respectively.
• /ɸ x/ can be voiced [β ɣ] intervocalically.

Vowels^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y ⟨ü⟩		u
Mid-high	e ⟨é⟩	(ə ⟨e⟩)
Mid-low	ɛ ⟨è⟩		ɔ ⟨o⟩
Low		a

• /e/ can be heard as [ɪ] in unstressed syllables.
• /a/ can vary to [æ] in stressed syllables.
• /ɔ/ is pronounced [o] before /w/.
• All vowels are lengthened in stressed syllables and word-finally.
• /ə/ is epenthetic and is never in stressed syllables.

Stress is unpredictable and phonemic.^[2]

Notes

1. Korowai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. de Vries, Lourens; van Enk, Gerrit J. (1997). The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language and its Cultural Context. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. Vol. 9. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195105513.

References

• Hughes, Jock. 2009. Upper Digul Survey. SIL International.